New legislators, old lawmakers in new jobs

The Washington Legislature will see new faces from the Puget Sound area come January, and veteran lawmakers moving from one chamber to the other.

Rep. Jamie Pedersen, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, is the unanimous choice of 43rd District Democrats to take the Senate seat being vacated by Seattle Mayor-elect Ed Murray. The Pedersen pick must be ratified by the King County Council, considered a formality.

In a spirited contest Tuesday night, the 43rd District Dems picked Brady Walkinshaw over two other candidates to fill Pedersen’s House seat. Walkinshaw is a program officer with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, active in the community as an Intiman board member.

The 43rd District in Seattle was once a bastion of moderate Republicanism, represented in the Legislature by the likes of future Gov. Dan Evans. In 1970, a young Seattle psychiatrist named Jim McDermott became the district’s first Democratic legislator.

Walkinshaw, a Cuban-American, is the latest in a succession of gay men to represent the 43rd in Olympia.

The string began with the landmark appointment of Cal Anderson in 1987 to fill a House vacancy. When Anderson moved to the Senate, Ed Murray filled his House seat. Pedersen was elected to the House when Murray moved up to the Senate.

The 43rd also launched the political career of Seattle City Councilwoman-elect Kshama Sawant. Sawant ran in 2012 as a “Socialist Alternative” candidate against Democratic House Speaker Frank Chopp. (She had originally challenged Pedersen.) There was no Republican on the ballot. Sawant took 29 percent of the vote, which supporters interpreted as a great victory.

King County Democrats have endorsed Walkinshaw as well as Pedersen. Walkinshaw bested 43rd District Democratic Chair Scott Forbes and Christina Gonzalez, who works for King County Executive Dow Constantine, in the contest for Pedersen’s seat.

In south King County, Democrats picked Kent City Councilwoman Elizabeth Albertson for the House vacancy created by the election of Rep. Dave Upthegrove to the King County Council.

Longtime Rep. John McCoy has been tapped as the new senator from the 38th District in Snohomish County. He replaces Sen. Nick Harper, who quit three years into his first term.

McCoy has spent a decade in the Legislature. He is the retired manager of Tulalip tribes’ successful Quil Ceda Vllage Business Park, which sprawls along the west side of Interstate 5 north of Marysville.

Pedersen and McCoy will join a beleaguered Democratic caucus in the Senate. Two of the Senate’s 25 Democrats have defected to join Republicans in what is called the Senate majority caucus. Sen. Rodney Tom, D-Medina, is titular senate majority leader, but Republicans run the Legislature’s upper chamber.

The Republicans picked up a Senate seat last month when GOP Rep. Jan Angel won a special election in the 26th District. The election was for the seat once held by U.S. Rep. Derek Kilmer, D-Wash., who was elected to Congress in 2012.